


A Fine Art (Wet, Cold and Miserable)

by travelledspace (wildestoftales)



Category: Kingsman (Movies), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Best Friends, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Sailing, Slow Build, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 21:58:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8030332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildestoftales/pseuds/travelledspace
Summary: When Jim is six years old, he falls in love with a rope in his hand, the blue sea beneath and all around him and the horizon. He falls in love with sailing, utterly and as swiftly as only six year old boys can.Much later, Jim falls for stupid jokes, warm hands and knowing someone inside out, better than you know yourself. He falls in love with his best friend. Or maybe he's always been in love with him, in one way or another. Maybe he fell for him when he was six years old, utterly and swiftly.





	A Fine Art (Wet, Cold and Miserable)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Feathercrown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feathercrown/gifts).



> The title comes from a very well-known sailing quote which goes: "Sailing: The fine art of slowly going nowhere at great expense while being wet, cold and miserable." I tried to google who originally said it but come up with about ten different sources. So I guess I'll just say it's a quote by my dad who's been saying it for as long as I can remember.
> 
> Chapter will hopefully be uploaded once a week. The chapter titles refer to Jim's and Eggsy's ages.
> 
> Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine. I know a tiny little bit about sailing and tried to research what I don't know but I obviously can't promise that it's all accurate.

During the winter when Jim turns six, his mum takes him and his brother Sam to the cinema on one of their rare outings together. She pays for a bucket of popcorn larger than Jim's head and sternly tells them to share. The reminder results in Sam plopping into his seat, the bucket in his lap, and shoving the popcorn in by the handful, ignoring Jim completely. Usually Jim would mind. He'd mind very much and he'd tell Sam exactly what he thinks of it but well. 

There's the movie. 

If you asked him now, he could neither tell you the title nor the plot of it. Something about pirates, definitely. What he rembers is the open water, endless and so very blue, and the majestic ships with their billowing sails. The pirates on their ship are first and foremost free, no rules, no nothing, just the stretch of the ocean before them and a horizon to chase

“I wanna become a pirate when I'm big,” Jim tells his mum on the way out of the cinema, his eyes bright and shining. 

“Alright,” she agrees, smiling fondly and not quite taking him seriously.

“Me too,” Sam says and Jim whips his head around to stare at him.

“I'll be the captain!” he insists.

“I'm older,” Sam explains, looking down on Jim like he sometimes does. “I'll be the captain.”

Jim slips his hand out of his mum's so he can cross his arms in front of his chest. He pouts but only until Sam hands him the popcorn bucket that's still half full.

He clutches it to his chest and thinks that sailing the world's oceans with Sam could be alright. Even if he has to let Sam be the captain of their ship.

–

For Christmas, all of Jim's presents are pirate-related. He gets a little toy ship (it can't actually swim, he finds out later in the bathing tub, and that's just _stupid_ ), one book on pirates and one on sailing. Well, there's also a bunch of clothes but he doesn't much care about them, except for one shirt that has a little sailing boat on the breast pocket – he likes that one.

On Christmas Day, before the bath tub incident, Jim starts with the book on sailing. He sits on the floor next to the couch and sounds out all the words. He's a good reader, his mum always says, but some words he doesn't know. He interrupts Sam where he's playing with a fake-pistol and asks him what they mean. Sam knows most of them, like line – that's really a rope and that word Jim knows, too –, starboard and port. But he doesn't know what a haylard might be and tells Jim to go ask their mum.

Jim tiptoes out into the hallway but his mum's bedroom door is closed. Jim knows she's busy packing because she's leaving again that evening and she doesn't like being disturbed.

So Jim grabs the dictionary that sits on their book shelf and settles back down. It takes ages to look up all the words and sometimes they're explained with even more complicated words that Jim doesn't know either, but he doesn't mind much. 

–

Jim is building paper boats and trying to get them to swim on the little river that flows a little ways behind their backyard, but he can't quite figure out how to keep them from sinking.

Sam says, “You're doing it wrong!”

Jim huffs because he knows that. “Help me do it.”

“No,” Sam says and shakes his head. 

“Why not?”

“Cause I don't want to be a pirate anymore.”

Jim gapes at him. “You said we were gonna be pirates!”

Sam shrugs. “They're boring. The sea is _boring_. I'm gonna go become an astronaut instead and see the stars!”

Jim doesn't want to cry about this. He especially doesn't want Sam to see him cry. It's just that they were gonna be part of the same crew and they were gonna sail the world.

“The stars are _stupid_ ,” Jim tells him as he jumps up from where he was crouching, his paper boats forgotten.

“You don't know anything about the stars.”

He's right. Jim doesn't know anything about the stars because he doesn't care to know about them. He cares about the sea. He doesn't answer Sam but instead runs back to the backyard. He runs past his uncle Frank who tells him to _take it slow, dammit_ and right into the house and up the stairs. He wishes he could slam his bedroom door but Frank hates that so he closes it slowly and falls down on the bed.

He turns his head sideways to where he put up a drawing he made earlier that week in pre-school of him and Sam on a sailboat with their pirate hats. Sam has an eyepatch and Jim is wielding a big sword. 

He huffs and buries his face in the pillow.

Loyalty, he knows, is the most important principle pirates have. It's the only law they know: You have to be loyal to your crew and your captain.

But Sam isn't loyal at all. 

–

The next day Jim doesn't speak to Sam the whole morning until his uncle sends Jim out to buy a few groceries. The first time Frank had sent him to the shop Jim had been a little younger still and the cashier had looked at Jim like he'd been waiting for his parents to walk through the door behind him. Now the cashiers know Jim and no one minds him anymore.

He takes the long route to the supermarket – the one that leads him by the harbour. With his shopping bag dangling from one hand, he stops to take it all in. Most of the ships are motorised, loud and fast. Jim doesn't care about them because the way he's sees it is all you do is steer a wheel. That's boring. You could drive a car instead, if you just want to steer a wheel, and you'd get where you want to go much faster. With sailboats, you have to put in effort and work to get anywhere: You have to know the ins and out, notice the way the wind is blowing and readjust your sails accordingly.

To Jim's left, there are two women on a small sailboat, just big enough to fit the two of them. Unable to help his curiosity, Jim steps closer to watch them. It looks like they're preparing to take off – is it called take off with ships? Jim isn't sure but he'll look it up in his book later.

They're untying ropes and pulling up the sail. Both of them are wearing life vests. To Jim, they look happy. When one of them says something that makes the other woman burst out in laughter, she sounds like she hasn't got a care in the world.

Jim takes in the way the laughing woman is easily handling the rope, lifting the sail. After a moment of staring, she catches his eyes and lifts an eyebrow.

“Hiya kiddo, you alright? Where are your parents?”

Jim doesn't know where his mum is; a town that starts with B or D or something like that, overseeing construction for some building or other.

His dad is dead.

He shrugs. “Home.” Then, because he's so very curious, “Where are you going?”

The other woman who's pulling her bright red hair together for a ponytail gives him a smile. “Don't know yet. Anywhere.”

Desperately, Jim wishes he could just jump on board and go with them to anywhere.

“Is sailing hard?” he asks because he's never actually been on a boat. All he has are books and movies.

“Nah,” the first woman says, shaking her head. “Once you've got it, it's super easy. The most important thing is not letting the boom hit you.”

Jim frowns. “What's a boom?”

“See these spars?” she asks and grabs one horizontal spar that's hanging pointing towards her, swinging it to the side. “It's called a boom because it can hit you. If it can't, it's either a yard or a pole. But it's the booms you've gotta watch out for; the wind changes and they can knock you right off the boat if you're not careful.”

“Watch out for booms,” Jim repeats, nodding. His book hadn't mentioned that yet.

“That's right,” the other woman says. “And always have a paddle with you just in case there's no wind. Don't wanna get stuck out on the ocean, do you?”

Jim nods again, soaking up the information. He likes how seriously the two of them are taking him. Usually adults like to talk down to him like he doesn't know anything at all. Even his mum just nods and moves right on when Jim tells her he wants to learn how to sail so he can become a pirate. 

After a while, the woman finish preparing for their journey and they wave to Jim before taking off. Jim watches them until they're too far out to see anymore. 

They look just as majestic as the pirates in the movie – maybe even more so. 

He gets yelled at by Frank for taking so long when he gets home and he has to hang his head down in apparent shame so Frank won't see him smile.

– 

“Stay here,” Frank says. “I'll go get your fool brother.” 

Jim nods and sits down on the bench in front of the principal's office while Frank takes off to the school nurse in order to pick up Sam who apparently fell ill during school.

He kicks his feet. He likes the idea of school but it's three more whole months before he gets to start his first year. Sam told him first year starts with learning to read but Jim can read already so he's not scared of it being too hard.

Of being bored, maybe, a little. But he likes the thought of learning and new kids to play with. 

Looking up, a cartoon sailboat catches his eyes. It's printed on a piece of paper that's stuck to a cork board on the opposite wall of Jim that's full of different pieces of papers and flyers. It's a very small boat, with a young child in a life fest holding onto a rope on it. There's some text underneath the picture and Jim gets up to read it.

He has to stand on his toes to be tall enough to read and he concentrates very carefully on getting it right, reading the text three times: It says that there's a two week sailing course for kids aged five to eight during the school holidays.

Jim's eyes go wide. He's six! That's definitely between five and eight.

He could learn to sail in just two weeks! He hops from one foot to the other in his excitement. Then he forces himself to stay still so he can keep reading.

It says to call a certain number to take part in the course. Jim casts a look around to make sure no one is watching and then carefully rips off one of the strips of paper with the number printed on it. 

Staring at it for a moment, he can't believe his luck. A sailing course for kids! This is exactly what he needs. 

He carefully folds up the piece of paper and puts it into his pocket.

–

Jim knows he can't ask Frank about the sailing course because Frank will just curse him out and then say no. Frank doesn't care about Jim's plans to become a pirate; he cares about being left alone.

So Jim needs to ask his mum. 

His opportunity to do so arrives two days later.

“Your mum's on the phone,” Frank's yell sounds from downstairs. Immediately Jim jumps up from the floor where he'd been sitting and reading. He runs right out the door until he realises he forgot his list with reasons why his mum should let him take part in the sailing course, so he turns back around and grabs it off his desk. It had taken ages to write everything he could think of down.

By the time he gets to the living room, Sam is already on the phone, slouching on the sofa, blanket pulled up to his chin.

“No,” he says. “I don't know. I've still got a fever, Frank says.”

Jim buries up next to Sam's feet, carefully pulling the scratchy woolen blanket back in place over them so Sam won't get cold.

“Two days,” Sam says, making a face. He's still awfully pale and Jim had brought him four cups of tea today already. They don't seem to help.

Nervously awaiting his turn on the phone, Jim tunes out Sam's conversation and looks over his list again:

\- out of the way (He means: I won't be in Frank's way for two whole weeks.)  
\- sam summer camp (He means: Sam is away at summer camp and so Frank won't be bothered by any kids around. Also, it'd be fair if Jim got to do something fun, too, while Sam is away.)  
\- meet new friends (He means: His mum and Frank are always saying how he needs to have more friends and get out of the house more often. Jim has no intention to look for a new friend while learning to sail but he thinks the argument might convince his mum.)  
\- christmas (He means: He'll forego Christmas presents this year if he has to. He's not happy about it and he doesn't want to miss out on presents, so he'll bring this one up last – see if he can get permission to go without sacrificing Christmas. If he has to, he will, though.)

He thinks it's a good list. He really hopes it'll work. His mum has to sign him up for the course within the next week.

Finally, Sam hands over the phone with a, “Mum wants to talk to you.”

“Hi mum,” Jim says into the phone, suddenly breathless with nerves.

“Hi love,” she replies. “How are you?”

“I'm fine. I saw a really cool fish in the pond yesterday! It was all blue and glittery.” He remembers his manners and asks, “How are you?”

“I'm fine, Jim, don't you worry about me. I'm glad you're having fun even when Sam can't play with you.”

“He doesn't want to play pirates anymore,” Jim complains. Playing with Sam is boring when all he wants to do is pretend to be astronauts. Jim has had enough of pretending to explore strange new planets.

His mum laughs softly. “Are you still mad at him?”

“No,” Jim says quickly. He doesn't want her to think he's being a bad brother.

“Good.”

“Mum, I have a question,” Jim starts. “When Frank picked up Sam, I went too and there was a paper hanging on a wall and I read it and it said there's a sailing course for kids this summer, and it's for kids between five and eight, and I'm six already, and then kids learn how to sail all on their own!”

“Slow down, Jimmy,” his mum interrupts. “What did you say? A sailing course?”

“Yeah,” Jim replies, nodding. “For kids like me. And it's for two weeks! And then I could sail like a proper pirate!”

“Oh, I don't know, Jim...”

Jim looks down at his list. “Sam is at summer camp,” he says. “And Frank doesn't want us around so then I could go to the course! And, uh, I could make new friends!”

His mum is quiet for a moment and Jim wonders if he should mention the Christmas presents, but then she asks, “How much does it cost? Do you know?”

Jim's eyes go wide. “Uhh,” he hesitates. “I don't know. I can't remember. I took this little piece of paper and it said to call the number on it.”

When Jim looks up from his list, Sam is watching him curiously.

“Alright, tell me the number, I'll talk to Frank about it. And then we'll see.”

“It's in my room, I'll go get it!”

Jim jumps up, dislocating Sam's blanket. When Sam holds out a hand for the phone, he hands it to him and races towards the stairs.

He hears Sam say, “You should let him go, mum.”

Sometimes he really, really loves Sam.

When he gets back, he carefully reads out the number to his mum and makes Sam check that he got all the numbers right. Then he says, “Can I please go, mum?” again because while running downstairs he'd realised he hadn't even said please yet!

“I'll talk to Frank,” his mum promises and Jim makes face that she can't see. Frank isn't even his dad and he doesn't pay for the course either. He's awful and grumpy and Jim is really scared he'll say no. “Be good.”

“I will, mum. Love you.”

“Love you, too, Jimmy. Take care of your brother.”

–

A few days later, Frank calls him out of the house to where he's lying on a lawn chair, and hands him an opened package. 

“What's that?”

“Your sailing nonsense,” Frank says.

Jim freezes. No one had even told him that they had decided to sign Jim up for the course! He had already been thinking about calling his mum again to beg some more.

The package has a lot of paper in it: There's one letter welcoming him into the course and telling him when to be where. He puts it down on his desk carefully. 

The course is a full month away. Jim can't wait.

The rest of the paper is stapled together and titled 'A Kid's Introduction to Sailing'. On the first page, it asks parents to go through it with their children so that they already have some working, theoretical knowledge about sailing.

Jim's eyes go wide. That'll definitely help him pass the time until next month!

– 

_Banana_ , Jim thinks, is a stupid name for a boat. It's not quite as bad as _Milk_ which is the name of the boat next to his Banana. The girl who is supposed to sail the Milk doesn't look all too happy about it, either. All the little boats have stupid, grocery list names but Jim really doesn't mind too much. 

When he gets his own grown-up sail boat, though, he'll name it something cool. He likes _The Black Pearl_ like in the Pirate of Caribbean movies. Or maybe _Wave Crusher_. A dangerous and daring name is what he needs. Not a piece of fruit.

After they've all put on their life vests, they're actually allowed to climb on the boats, though they're not supposed to untie the ropes yet. For now, they have to sit down and listen to the instructor tell them about safety on ships: It's a little silly, Jim thinks, because she just repeats what Jim had already read in the Instruction they had all gotten over and over again. Surely the other kids know it by heart, too.

After he's passed some time thoroughly checking out his little boat and touching the huge white sail with something akin to awed shyness, he lets his gaze wander. The instructor is still going on about looking out for the boom, though she just calls it a spar, and Jim had known that before he'd even signed up for the sailing course.

The boat tied to the landing stage right next to Jim on the other side is named _Egg_. The boy in it seems just as bored. He is leaning over the railing, peering into the water, inching further and further towards it.

Maybe he is watching fish? Jim doesn't think there are any in the harbour, but he hasn't checked for himself. Shifting towards his own railing, Jim looks down into the water. It's mostly very murky; nothing at all like the brilliant blue water of the seas Jim will one day sail on. 

Just then, he spots movement: A flash of something orange. He looks up to check of Egg-boy is still watching, if they have spotted the same fish.

The boy is leaning way too far over the railing now, Jim notices immediately. He yells, “He, Egg-boy!” and the boy looks up at him, startled. It's that tiny movement of his head that has him lose his concentration as well as his precious balance.

A look of utter surprise crosses the boy's face as the boat topples over to the side and the boy crashes into the water, head-first.

Jim can't help it: He laughs. 

The boy splutters back to the surface, his bright orange life vest keeping him afloat. It also massively restricts his movements, reducing him to paddling motions.

He scowls at Jim, frown etched deep into his features. That and their instructor's shocked yell for the boy to stay where he is, has Jim swallowing his laughter back down. 

“Sorry! I'm sorry! But you have to always remember where your center of gravity is, Eggsy.”

The boy scowls even more severely and doesn't say a single word. Jim feels bad. He leans towards him and holds out a hand. 

“I can help you out?” he offers with a hesitant smile.

Their instructor is yelling at Jim to sit back down.

Paddling closer, the boy grasps Jim's wrist firmly in his. Jim holds on just as tightly. Before Jim can even think to try and heave him out, Egg-boy gives a mighty pull. 

Jim stands no chance: He's already leaning out way too far and goes overboard with a great splash. 

He breaks the surface to the sight of the boy's bright, bright and mischievous grin. Two of his upper row teeth are missing. Jim splutters.

“My name's not Eggsy,” the boy says.

“Gary! Jim!” their instructor yells. “Get over here right now!”

He doesn't look like a _Gary_ at all.

–

_(“What do you mean,” Eggsy will ask Jim more than a decade later, eyes amused, “You don't remember our first meeting?”_

_“I was six!”_

_“I still remember it! You shoved me into the water and called me Eggsy.”_

_Jim gives him a look as he ties the rope to the platform. “I didn't shove you in.”_

_“How would you know?” Eggsy shoots back, grinning. “It's not like you remember.”)_

–

For their _irresponsible and dangerous antics_ they get time-out, meaning they have to stay next to their instructor rather than climb back on their boats. They watch the other kids try their hands at sailing, and, in most cases, fail.

Jim is mad. It's all that Eggsy's fault. Jim belongs on a boat right now! He turns towards Eggsy to tell him exactly that, his hands curled into frustrated fists at his side.

The boy says, “I hate boats.”

Jim can't believe it. Now he's even angrier. “They're the coolest thing!” he protests. “Why are you here if you hate boats? That's stupid!”

“Boats are stupid,” Eggsy repeats, staring out at the other kids on their boats like they, too, are stupid.

“You are stupid,” Jim says but quietly enough so that maybe the boy doesn't hear it. “Why are you here, Eggsy?”

“My name is Gary!”

Jim pulls a face, his anger fading slowly. “I like Eggsy better.”

Eggsy doesn't reply. Instead, he holds out the towel he had used to dry off. “Your hair's wet.”

Their instructor gave Jim his own towel but he'd tossed it aside angrily after drying off the barest minimum.

He grabs Eggsy's towel and dries off his hair as best as he can. Eggsy's hair isn't completely dry yet, either. A few strands are stuck to his forehead, hanging down into his green eyes but he doesn't seem to care.

–

After the lunch break, they are allowed on their boats again but Eggsy still dislikes his. He tells Jim that he was only there because his mum had won the course through the newspaper. He doesn't have any siblings to go instead and since he's six years old – old enough for the course, certainly – he'd had to go. 

“She wanted to win the car,” Eggsy explains. 

Jim nods like he understands. Really, he'd trade a hundred cars for a sail boat. But he likes Eggsy, despite his stupid opinions on sailing, so he offers, “We can switch. Banana is better than Egg.”

Eggsy grins at him, wide and careless. Jim thinks that he'd make a great pirate. 

–

The next day, they learn how to tie the knots they need. Jim is excited for knotting because it's so important. Without proper knotting, your boat might just float away!

It only takes him ten minutes to find out that he's terrible at tying knots. He can't follow the instructions very well and he always gets the rope all tangled up and it's frustrating. He frowns, watches their instructor demonstrate a bowline again, and tries once more. When he gets his hands all tangled up again, he drops the rope.

“I'm too stupid,” he says to himself. 

Eggsy who sits cross-legged on the platform right next to him, looks up from where he's already processed to the halyard hitch. Jim will never get there because he can't even tie a bowline!

“Here,” Eggsy says and picks up Jim's discarded rope.

Jim doesn't want Eggsy, who doesn't even like boats or care about sailing, to show him how to tie a knot so he takes the rope from him. “That's mine,” he says.

For a moment, Eggsy frowns right back at him. Then he says, “You're annoying” and picks up his own finished bowtie. He unties it again and holds it up for Jim to see. “See, just pretend it's a little snake, yeah? You make a lake for it because it's a water snake, okay? And then it comes out of the little lake, winds itself right around this part of the rope – that's a tree, maybe – and then goes back into the lake. That's all.”

“It's not a snake,” Jim says snappily but picks up his rope again. 

For a moment he just stares at it in frustration; he's supposed to be brilliant at this. He wants to be brilliant at this.

Eggsy bumps his shoulder. “Captain Jim,” he says.

Flushing a little, Jim thinks back to how he told Eggsy this morning when they both arrived at the course that he'd be a great captain someday. 

And a captain certainly knows how to tie all the difficult knots, let alone the easy bowtie. 

“Make a lake,” he says, doing just that. “The snake comes out of it, winds around the tree, and,” he hesitates for a moment, completely unsure if he's doing it right or messing it up yet again. “Goes back in.”

He pulls at the rope to tighten the knot and it worked: in his hands, he holds a perfectly tied bowtie. 

Bright-eyed, he looks at Eggsy. “It worked!”

Eggsy smiles and hands him the next piece of rope for the haylard hitch. “It did,” he agrees. “But I still think tying knots is stupid.”

“You're stupid,” Jim replies and takes the rope from him. “How do I do this one?”

–

On day four, they get to sail for the first time. Not on their little boats, mind, but always groups of three with the instructor on a slightly bigger boat. Jim and Eggsy stick together, of course. After a moment, a girl named Tiffany joins them. 

“I hope I don't fall in,” she says.

Jim shrugs. “It's not very cold,” because it hadn't been on that first day Eggsy and him had fallen off their boats, so why should it be now?

She gives him a look. “It's still scary!”

By the time, they get their turn Jim is nearly vibrating with energy and the instructor tells him several times to please sit down or she won't take off at all. 

Eggsy pulls Jim to sit next to him, opposite of Tiffany. 

“It doesn't even go very fast,” Eggsy complains as the instructor unties the ropes while explaining what exactly she's doing.

Within a few minutes, they're further out than Jim's ever been before. They don't even leave the harbour, not really, but they pick up proper speed. 

It feels like flying! Jim's hair is flying around madly in the wind and it's brilliant, just utterly, utterly brilliant. Better than he expected, certainly. They're not even going anywhere but Jim feels free and weightless.

Fully expecting Eggsy to be hate sailing still, he turns around to face him with wide, awe-filled eyes.

Except Eggsy's eyes are all lit up and he's smiling, mouth open wide, in obvious delight.

“I'm flying! Jim, we're flying!”

Jim nods wildly and they both lean out further towards the railings, Eggsy closer to him now, to feel more of the wind on their face when their instructor makes a sharp turn. 

They both laugh at the water splashing up and wetting their arms. 

Their instructor is still explaining something or other, but Jim and Eggsy are both too occupied with how amazing the feeling is, how it feels like nothing, nothing can ever hold them back, to pay any attention.

Way too soon they slow down and turn back towards the port so the next group can have their turn.

“No!” Eggsy says. “Can't we sail a little more?”

Jim nods fervently.

“Sorry, guys,” the instructor says and gives them a smile. “You'll be able to do it on your own soon enough.”

“Then we can sail all the way out to the sea!” Jim tells Eggsy as they climb off the boat after Tiffany. 

“Awesome!” Eggsy says and Jim has to laugh because awesome is Sam's favourite word and it sounds funny, coming from Eggsy.

“Awesome,” he repeats. “Super awesome.”

–

Learning to sail isn't easy. At first they don't go anywhere and when they do finally manage to gather some speed, they never go where they actually want to go. Jim has new bruises every night because the boom keeps hitting him. Eggsy is way more graceful, he almost never gets hit by it, and that's just frustrating. 

But they work together well as a team, never standing in each other's way and the things Jim isn't very good at, Eggsy is brilliant at, and vice versa.

It's pretty awesome, all things considered, and Jim feels like a proper pirate. When the sailing course comes to an end, he's sad about it. The two weeks seemed like they'd never end but suddenly it's the last day. 

Jim doesn't know when he'll get to go on a boat next. 

On the last day, they are free to do what they want as long as they don't leave the harbour, so Jim and Eggsy take the Egg – their favourite boat by now – and sail back and forth, trying to go as fast as they can. Once again, they get wet from head to toe and once again, they're flying. Jim doesn't even get hit by the broom on that last day. 

They're the last ones to get back, after their instructor has already called for them over and over, and Jim ties the boat to the port. Feeling heavy, he climbs off the boat after Eggsy and lines up with all the other kids.

They get kids' sailing licenses with their names on them and that does manage to brighten Jim's mood a little. 

“I'm a captain!” he tells Eggsy. 

“Me too,” Eggsy agrees and waves his certificate in Jim's face. 

When Eggsy's mum arrives to pick him up, Jim hugs him tight. He's sad about the sailing course ending, that's true, but he's also excited – Eggsy and him have agreed to meet on a playground near Jim's house tomorrow to play together. Turns out they don't live very far away from each other! 

So, Jim shakes Eggsy's mums hand and then waves to Eggsy as the two of them walk away, his certificate still in his hand.

–

His mum isn't at home at the moment and Frank is busy so on the first day of school, neither of them take him there. Instead he walks to school with Sam, an excited bounce in his step.

“My teacher's name is Ms Troi! Do you know her? Is she nice?”

Sam shrugs, not anywhere near as excited at the prospect of going back to school. “I'm in fourth grade,” he tells Jim. “We don't have the same teachers. I don't know her.”

“Do you think we'll start with reading? Cause I can read already!”

Sam just shrugs again. “I could read before school started, too, it was proper boring.”

As they make their way into the school and to Jim's new class room, Jim wonders if he'll be bored, too. He hopes not.

“Here it is. Mum said be good.” They stop in front of Jim's classroom door. Sam gives Jim an unexpected and rather short hug. “Have fun, Jimmy. I'll pick you up when you're done, so don't run off!”

With that, Sam walks off, leaving Jim to face the open class room door on his own. He can see his new teacher, Ms. Troi, a tall woman with dark curly hair, greet new students. She seems friendly. 

Still, when Jim enters the classroom after only hesitating for a second, he doesn't walk to her desk at the front of the room; instead he makes a beeline for one of the tables in the second to last row. 

“Eggsy!”

“Jim!” Eggsy gets up from his seat to throw his arms around Jim in a brief hug. “You can sit next to me, I kept it free!”

Immediately Jim feels much, much less worried about school. It's gonna be anything but boring.

–

“Oh, I'm sorry...” Ms. Troi looks down at a piece of paper. “Jim, right? There's a seating plan. You're supposed to sit next to Lily in the front row.”

Jim and Eggsy look at each other, then Jim protests without even looking towards Lily. “But we're friends!”

“That's nice,” Ms. Troi replies sincerely. “And now you can make some new friends, right? That's what's fun about school!”

Jim wants to protest more and simply stay in his seat but he remembers that his mum wants him to be good. He always tries to listen to his mum.

“It's not forever, only for the first term,” Ms. Troi says.

“That's, like, forever!” Eggsy complains very quietly and Jim nods.

Still, with a heavy frown, he gets up, grabs his blue backpack and walks towards the front of the room. 

–

It's not that bad, in the end.

There's still the lunch break and P.E. doesn't have a seating plan either, so Eggsy and him get to be together, after all. They have lots of fun in P.E., running around, chasing each other or teaming up against the other kids. During lunch, they mostly sit alone. Sometimes they wave at Sam as he walks by with his friends but he's too cool to sit with them. It doesn't matter either way; they don't really want anyone else to sit with them. In less than a week, they have their own code works, jokes and trade pieces from their lunch bags like they're brothers. 

In a little over a week, Jim is back in his seat next to Eggsy during class, too. He gave Boris three of his favourite pokemon stickers to switch with him and sit next to Lily instead.

They're giggly before that particular class starts, feeling clever and devious for daring to defy Ms. Troi. She's nice, they've figured that out by now, but they're still a little apprehensive that she might just separate them again. Their apprehension just makes them even gigglier, unable to sit still, as they constantly shush each other.

When Ms. Troi finally walks in and reads out students' names to check attendance, she briefly pauses after calling out Jim's name. She gives him and Eggsy a curious look, then Lily and Boris. 

“Here,” Jim says, voice louder than intended in his nervousness. It doesn't sound shakey or scared, though. So that's good.

After a moment, Ms. Troi simply nods and continues. She doesn't tell them to switch back and Eggsy and Jim grin at each other widely, feeling victorious, feeling like they're the kings of the world.

And so they sit together in class for the next twelve years.


End file.
